This is the journey of one many discovering what it means to be a permanent intern of the God of the universe. Fetching coffee is the easiest part of the job.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Hello and welcome to the 3rd World

Today was my first day in Fiji. Wow, what a mixed bag of expectations and emotions. If I wasn’t sure what to expect before, I have no idea what is coming now.

I arrived at 5:30 AM this morning, after a long flight over the Pacific ocean. I sat with an American that was going to Australia to surf and travel with his buddies for six months. On the other side of me was a guy from Didsbury which is about an hour out of Three Hills. What a small world we live in, and how great is God? We had a good chat, and it was nice to talk to someone who not only shared the same knowledge of the local and people, but also the same faith.

Saturday was mostly spent travelling throughout Nadi (pronounced Nandee), seeing some of the sights and getting better acquainted with Ken and Mary. It was a long day, all in all, and through a lot of it, I was very discouraged. I was painted a very bleak picture of the Fijian people, and what I should be expecting from them. Large parts of me just don’t believe it.

God and I spent a lot of time conversing over that one. Why would He bring me to a place like this? Am I really cut out for a job like this? What does He want from me while I’m here? How can I make a difference in a culture that is so foreign to me? It felt like I would never get the hang of it! I felt hopeless. But God is a God of hope and refuge. So I clung to that, and in the end He reminded me of the hope that He gives and to wait it out and draw some of my own conclusions. That is an awesome plan.

Did I mention my bags didn’t make it past LA?We met a guy by the name of Jong, who runs a local hotel here. Had dessert with him this evening, and had some good laughs. Really helped the whole discouragement thing to hang out with someone closer to my age and thought patterns… and maybe I can do this.